Interests:My dad used to call me Renaissance Man. My main goal in life is to get involved in many different things, obtaining valuable skills along the way, and to find ways to combine those skills to benefit others. Here are links to other blog sites.
What I have forgotten was how therapeutic it was to write. Today I got an email, about a post that I had made during my time in Iraq - my time in the military. It was about a fallen soldier and the homage I gave to his memory, and it was from someone who is close to him. Even though I knew very little about the real him, I did my best to show my gratitude and honor to him. I was thanked for it in the email.
Since this morning, I have realized a few important things about this blog site.
1) I should do everything in my power to keep the blog's posts active and legible.
2) I should replace the broken links to images with as many of the original images I can find.
3) Although I have moved on from the military life, I will always be a defender of freedom and the Army values because they are still very much a part of me. For that reason, I will make new posts to this blog that discuss issues related to those things, whether they be directly related to my own choices in life or issues I read and hear about.
Much has changed in my life since the days I was maintaining this blog. It has been six years, but I can still feel the hot sun on my superfluous layers of clothing, and I can still smell the putrid odor coming from the Southwest corner of the base where I would run 3 afternoons a week to be able to pass the PT test. I remember the crazy times, and the slow times, and the bonds that I made with the people I served with. Unfortunately, I only communicate with a handful of the guys these days. The lives of the soldiers of the 818th Maint. Co. went separate ways after the deployment. In a way, it's saddening that I will probably never see some of the people that I grew so close to in the service. People move on, I guess. After all, I have.
But...
There will always be a special place in my heart for everyone I had the pleasure of serving with, and I will always do whatever I can to help them when they're in need, or just want to grab a beer. I'm lucky to still be in close contact with my best friends from those days, and I expect that we'll still be getting together for old time's sake for years to come. In fact, I'm currently trying to help one of them get a job in this area (Washington DC/NOVA) so he can move down and be in a better area than the one he lives in. Here's hoping!
Nowadays I'm still doing websites, photography and videos, but I've also added logos and other graphic design services to my list of skills. Also, I'm like, way better at it than I was in 2005. I'm in school at George Mason University, majoring in Web Development (maybe soon with a minor in business). Unfortunately, I cannot use my electronics experience in the Army to count for credentials with multimedia, but I'm happy I'm in school. I'll be happier when it's all said and done, but I'm still enjoying my time developing into a ... developer.
However, this blog is not the place for talk about me! This blog is about the military, freedom, and the American way! So I'm going to slowly start my restoration of this blog. Even though nobody will read it, it's still therapeutic to write.
It's been a long time since I updated, and that's because I've been having so many problems getting my life in order. Becky's gone. She went back up with her family and left me. She checks in every once in a while, but I rarely call her anymore, but I know she's probably happier up north where life is simple. I'm ok about it though. I realize now how demanding she was. It's good to just have to worry about myself.
Over the summer I decided to start a video prodection company with by closest friend Rizzo (Alex) of about 10 years, which took me to New York City, Knoxville, and Richmond. However, most of those projects were for a client that went back on his verbal agreement with us and ended up not paying us. So I became much in debt with the equipment costs and have just recently been making enough money to start paying the bills off. In any case, Spontaneous Human Productions will be back on it's feet soon, and I'll keep you posted as to our latest projects. Below are some pictures from the summer and some videos.
Well, the renovations are pretty much all done, and it has been waaayyyy too long since i updated this site. I half feel like i'm obligated to talk about how my life has been and that i'm skirting my duties. But that's what xanga is supposed to be about. it's an outlet. i don't have to write about that right now if i don't want to.i'm going to about my renovations, as it really has made my room the best place in the world (for me). i call it home, and i love it like a home, even though it's only the bottom floor of my house. for those who have been to my place before and after the renovations, the reaction is always the same... "wow".
Unfortunately, i don't have before and after pictures. i have some pictures from before but you can't really get a good grip on how ugly this place really was beforehand. i was gonna clean this place up before i took the after pictures, but it's been a long day, and this update is gonna take a while. here's some before pictures. if you look in between dennis and kelly in the backround you'll see the old closet, which had various drawings and sketches on the walls. it was basically the storage closet for junk and trash, and usually didn't smell too good. in the second pic, you can see how chris (my friend who helped with the renovations) practically painted a mural filling in all the holes in the walls with spackle (spacle.. spakle?).
maybe you can't really tell with that picture... lemme try another.
Unfortunately you can't see the floor. the floor was stained profusely, with a spot that was covered up with a welcome mat, because it looked like acid or something had been spilled there. the carpet looked like it had been nearly eaten away in that spot. also the lighting used to be a big problem so we put in recess lighting and hard wood floors (which really accent each other beautifully). of course the ugly green walls had to go, and so did the storage closet. we turned it into a bathroom. we put in a fan by the backdoor, which we also changed. it used to be a sliding glass door that really didn't slide. we would have to grab onto the plastic around the screw where the door handle once was, and lift the door up in order to open or close it. rumors have it that the blonde girl in one of the pictures below broke it somehow. without further adue (ado?), the new room.
And of course, some random pictures of people having fun.
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